Libya’s Interior Ministry announced that members of the deterrence apparatus have arrested an organised gang, that was planning to manufacture and trade drugs internationally.
In a statement, the ministry said that “a machine used to manufacture narcotic pills at a very high density was seized after arriving in the country, through a seaport coming from Europe.”
The statement explained that “this was done after setting up a tight ambush in the Al-Sawani area to seize the machine, while it was being delivered to a Libyan city, to begin the production process of nearly 100,000 narcotic pills per day.”
In November, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the seizure of 14,910 pieces of hashish and 829,830 narcotic tablets. These were hidden in a container designated for transporting durable goods coming from Turkey, at the seaport of Misrata.
The office ordered that the perpetrators be referred to the competent authorities to complete all legal procedures against them, and confiscate the narcotics.
The drug trade in Libya has proliferated since the 2011 civil war. the Maltese authorities recently seized 612kg of cocaine en route to Libya, in a record-breaking haul worth some €69 million euros.
In May, the Head of Libya’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau, Adel Bentaleb claimed that there has been a marked increase in drug traffickers using Libya as a transhipment point. This includes drugs from as far as South America.
“While many of these drugs are neither produced nor consumed here, this has not spared us from the violent crime inevitably wrought by such activity, which we are determined to combat alongside INTERPOL,” Bentaleb said.
INTERPOL has said drugs worth nearly €100 million euros have been seized in Africa and the Middle East, during a large international police operation in March and April of 2021.
In December 2021, Benghazi’s police service seized about 800kg of cannabis hidden inside a truck in the city of Ajdabiya. The Anti-Drugs Department has estimated the drugs’ value at about 14 million Libyan dinars. The shipment is believed to have originated from Algeria and was smuggled to the Libyan city of Zintan, it was en route to Tobruk where it was due to be distributed.
The drug trade in Libya has proliferated since the 2011 civil war. the Maltese authorities have recently seized 612kg of cocaine en route to Libya, in a record-breaking haul worth some €69 million euros.
